


We'll Talk When You Wake Up

by PresAlex



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [6]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Apologies, Bad Things Happen Bingo Exhaustion, Fluff, Juno takes care of Nureyev, Juno’s trying ok, Let Nureyev be upset 2k19., Local Master Thief Bad At Self Care, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-27 02:44:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18295256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PresAlex/pseuds/PresAlex
Summary: Peter isn’t coping very well. Juno’s still learning how to get better, but he’s trying.





	We'll Talk When You Wake Up

**Author's Note:**

> absolutely all of the bird facts are made up. Same goes for all the planet names.

It took a few days for Juno to realize what was going on. In fact, Rita noticed long before Juno-- Something that made sense in hindsight, seeing as Rita was the one who had to deal with for years on end.

It had been a few weeks since the two of them had joined the others in a new life of crime, and Juno couldn’t help but notice how different Nureyev was. He felt weird, even then, assuming that the reason Nureyev was acting so strange was that he was there. After all, it had been a very long time since they had seen each other and their split hadn’t exactly been mutually decided upon. Juno himself found that he was acting weirdly whenever he was around Nureyev, but he had quickly learned to at least try to keep himself in check.

The crew was working together, Buddy had explained with an attempt at patience that looked more like a scowl. They couldn’t afford to make mistakes because Juno refused to work with certain people, or because Juno left the room halfway through a meeting when A Certain Member Of The Crew arrived late, or because Juno skipped another meal to avoid that same member of the crew. 

Juno had slipped up once near the beginning of his time with the crew and knew that once was enough. Rita had been confronted by one of the cronies they were trying to lose, and her split lip and concussion may have seemed mild in comparison to some of Juno’s own past scrapes, but seeing Rita injured was way different than being injured himself. He’d knocked off the emotionally distant attitude as much as he could as soon as Rita was better. It was a work in progress, getting to a place where he could be open and vulnerable, but he was glad he had the rest of the crew to keep him in check if his resolve wandered. Vespa had been very clear they weren’t babysitting him, so he knew he didn’t get any sort of special treatment. Despite this, it wasn’t unheard of for Jet to put an arm around Juno’s shoulders if he tried to sneak away, or Vespa to kick him under the table if he got weird and closed off.

The attention he was putting into his own behaviour took, as well as the focus needed to keep track of their upcoming cases, alias information, blueprints, maps, and tech, allowed Juno just the excuse to overlook Nureyev’s behaviour. Vespa, Buddy, and Jet didn’t seem to think there was anything strange about the way Nureyev-- or Kay as he was known by them-- acted. Compared to the Nureyev Juno knew, Kay was such a different person. That could have just been due to Nureyev’s talent with disguise, but even Rita seemed curious.

Rita may have only known Kay in passing back when he was Rex Glass, and she didn’t know how he usually acted, but she did know how to tell spot certain behaviours. From experience, she could tell the difference between someone feigning sleep or exhaustion, and someone who was actually exhausted. (The same lady who she’d gathered this information from was also the source of her knowledge on how to differentiate between fake drunk and really drunk, among other things.) So when, one the night Juno and Rita had set aside for a “ladies night”, Rita mentioned Mr. Kay’s strange behaviour, Juno knew he could overlook it no longer.

“So what’s the deal with Mr. Kay?” Rita had initially asked through a mouthful of fish flavoured crackers. Juno hadn’t known what she meant at first. His eye remained trained on the screen in front of them where a group of people were dressing up to go to a fancy gala that they were mysteriously invited to. He hummed in question at Rita before starting with a swear as he felt a drop of nail polish drip onto his leg, “Well I know that you and that fella have history from back when he was Mr. Glass and all. And I know you two were the Roses before you went off the grid for a bit, thanks for telling me all that by the way, but he’s been actin’ weird.”

“Oh?” Juno focussed more on what she was saying, taking his view away from the blue-tinged screen in front of them.

“Yeah. So anyways, he’s actin’ a lot like you? Not you now of course--  Thanks again for trying not to be weird around ‘im. If that tension kept up any longer I thought Vespa was gonna kick you out of the group. Or at least lock you two somewhere to talk. Or something.”

“Uh...You’re welcome?” Juno squinted at her and she reached over to pat him on the cheek.

“Don’t worry, I was vouching for the locked-in-a-room one. They can’t separate us so easily, Mr. Steel. But basically, did you see how Mr. Kay got when he stood up after our meeting today?” She paused and looked at Juno obviously waiting for him to answer in the affirmative, but he was still lost, “Boss! Really. It’s like you don’t care at all. He stood up and then did the whole ‘slap hand on the table and look really hard at it’ thing.”

“The what?”

“How about how jumpy he is? Did you notice that one? How sometimes he just kinda jumps as though someone’s gonna hit him even if no one’s near him. Or how yesterday when we were all in the common area he doin’ nothing, he thought he heard someone call his name when we’d all been silent for the past while. Or how he’s always the one to stay up when everyone’s gone to sleep to watch the ship and turn off the lights?”

“Okay, yes, I’ve noticed some of that. I thought it was weird, but I couldn’t figure out if it was a disguise thing or what was actually wrong with him. You’re saying you’ve figured it out?”

“He’s  _ tired _ , Mr. Steel. He’s acting how you got sometimes around the time your brother… Y’know, how you would try to do more and more work to distract yourself or something and then I’d come in to the office one day to find you passed out on the floor, or I’d get a call at three in the morning to come to get you because someone had beat you up in an alley somewhere. Or I could pull you away from the office long enough to get you to come to a movie or something? Or--”

“Rita! Rita, I get it. What am I supposed to do about all that? He’s an adult.” Juno screwed up his face petulantly while Rita sighed.

“Just watch out for him, boss. Sometimes that guy looks like even  _ I _ could take him in a fight and win nowadays.”

A few days passed before the crew had reached a planet on which to complete the research necessary to complete their next job. Buddy and Vespa had learned of an underground group who were selling people and sending them lightyears away from their families to work off debt. There was an auction happening in a week on a nearby planet, and the group needed to be there to intercept the ship bringing in the people. Juno and Nureyev were to be stationed at the party to distract and gain intel. The leader of the organization would be attending as a guest to keep a low profile. The two of them needed to be able to distinguish who they were and get them away from the other guest’s and into the ship where Jet would be waiting to restrain them. The girls would be busy working on a way to get into the ship’s hardware so that Buddy and Vespa could safely get in and rescue the people inside. 

Thus, Nureyev and Juno found themselves sitting at a table across from one another in a library planetside. The library itself was massive-- way bigger by far than any other library Juno had ever been inside in his years. There was a stack of books surrounding Nureyev, and a holoscreen in front of him on which he was taking messy notes. Juno had his own supply of books, but there were far less in front of him than there were in front of Nureyev.

Juno was doing research into the rare birds that were native to the planet Pucropra. He was supposed to be some sort of wealthy bird taxidermy collector or something. Apparently, his disguise was extremely well-versed in all things ‘bird’, and his collection of taxidermied exotic birds was worth well over 10 million creds. His persona was in need of a helping hand around his shop, and he had the money to spend on the most quality help he could get. As far as Juno knew, Nureyev was looking into the methods that the workers on Minrulea used to mine their valuable gems. There was no way after all that anyone who wasn’t part of the extremely wealthy was getting into this gala. In a room of experts in various fields, not knowing enough about your own field could raise some immediate alarm bells.

As Juno and Nureyev worked through their piles of books, the library’s overhead lights dimmed and the nighttime lights kick in. A bright blue glow wrapped around the ceiling and floor of the library and lined the streets outside. Juno squinted at the page to keep reading as long as he could, but there was only so much a lady could read about the Mibolean Crested Ibis on little sleep before he stopped paying attention. On his third attempt to read the paragraph, he decided enough was enough for one day. He yawned and stretched, groaning when his back popped. 

“I’m gonna call it a night. You coming?” Juno asked, beginning to pack his materials into the bag he brought with him. Nureyev’s stylus never left his holoscreen, nor did his eyes leave the book open in front of him.

“I’ll catch up with you. I’m not tired yet.”

“Well, whatever you say. Come back as soon as you can though, alright? Wouldn’t wanna lose my plus-one to the gala.” The attempt at a joke fell awkwardly flat as Nureyev’s eyes flicked up to stare at him neutrally for a few seconds. 

“Indeed. We wouldn’t want your Mr. Bliss to be left all by his lonesome, would we.” Nureyev said, putting on an air of disinterest. His eyes slid back to his work. The glow surrounding them almost matched the glow coming from Nureyev’s screen and it cast him in a ghoulish light.

“...Alright then. Get back safely. I have my comms on in case you get into trouble.”

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” The smile that Nureyev sent his ways looked more like a scowl. He left the library somehow feeling like he had done something wrong.

Nureyev was already waiting for him outside the library when Juno got there the next day. He was sitting on a bench outside the door, apparently doodling something cat shaped on the back of a receipt. He looked up when Juno approached him, immediately standing to saunter through the double doors. Juno had become something of a light sleeper in recent months and had heard Nureyev come back the night before at nearly three in the morning. That combined with the fact that Nureyev had apparently left the ship before Juno had even woken up around eight left Rita’s earlier words repeating themselves in his brain. 

The first bit of their research time found Nureyev back hard at work and Juno staring at the thief as if looking at a particularly puzzling crime scene for clues. True to form, Nureyev didn’t look the least bit dishevelled. His hair was styled in the same way Kay always wore it, and he didn’t appear to have any bags under his eyes-- though he was also probably wearing makeup. As he watched him, Nureyev’s thumb tapped an erratic rhythm against the corner of the table. He had one hand up, his forehead resting on his palm and hiding his eyes from Juno’s view. It became apparent all of a sudden that Juno hadn’t seen Nureyev turn the page in quite some time. Deciding to risk it, he leaned slightly forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the thief’s face.

“Can I help you, Juno?” Nureyev asked tiredly. He made eye contact with Juno, not moving his hand from where it was on his forehead but raising his eyebrows.

“Oh. Uh. I was just checking to see if you were still...awake?”

“Yes, detective. This job is that unimportant to me that I’ve chosen to sleep instead of complete the task I have been given.”

“What? Hey, that isn’t what I meant and you know it.”

“Do I? Enlighten me.” Nureyev leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. Juno didn’t fail to notice the attempt to subtly put more space between them.

“Did you get  _ any _ sleep last night, Kay?”

“I don’t know how that has anything to do with you.” Nureyev raised an eyebrow at him almost challengingly. He knew Nureyev was trying to get under his skin-- was trying to get him to acknowledge how he’d left Nureyev alone. Juno had honestly been meaning to talk to him ever since he had realized they would be travelling together, but between his own anxieties, their demanding crime schedule, and Nureyev’s constant need to never be left alone in a room with Juno, he just hadn’t found the means to do so. If Nureyev wanted to get into it in the middle of a library on a strange planet, he guessed that was as good a time as any.

“Listen, I’m--I’m worried is all,” Juno said simply, ignoring the way his eyepatch was making his skin itch.

“The detective  _ does _ have a heart after all.”

“That was unfair.”

“Was it?” Nureyev sighed, “Enough”

“What?”

“I got  _ enough _ sleep. I’m going to get water.” Nureyev rolled his eyes and stood sharply. The movement made his head swim and Juno watched his eyes go wide and distant for a moment as his hands slapped down on the table. So  _ that _ was what Rita meant.

Juno stood and walked over to stand in front of Nureyev.

“Sit down. I’ll go get the water.”

“I can get my own water, thank you, detective.” Nureyev replied snidely, “It was just a head rush.”

Juno had already turned to walk over to the library’s water fountain, however. When he returned with two biodegradable cups of water, Nureyev had buried himself once again in his books. Juno shook his head and placed the water on the table.

Time crawled by slow enough that Juno thought he could physically feel the minutes passing. There was an uncomfortable tension between the two of them that Juno didn’t know how to fix. It was really hard to throw oneself into their work when exotic bird facts were just so dry and repetitive. If he had to read one more time about how another completely different bird was unique and special because it survived solely on bonemeal, he was going to scream.

Finally, the lights dimmed once again, bathing the library in vibrant, blue neon. Juno shut his book and stood.

“Are you going to come back this time?”

“I want to finish this first.”

“But you’ll be back?”

“I told you not to worry about me, detective.”

“I’m trying to--” apologize, “fine. I’ll see you tomorrow probably.”

Rita was not pleased with him when he told her about his day over popcorn back at the ship. She levelled him with a Look and swallowed before reminding Juno that she expected him to watch out for Mr. Kay.

When Juno got back to the library, Nureyev wasn’t out front like before. He hadn’t been in the ship either. The worry that had started to gnaw at Juno didn’t quite dissipate when he entered the library and saw Nureyev still sitting where he had left him the night before. He set down the cup of coffee he had brought for himself and slid it towards Nureyev instead. He could probably use it more than him. Without looking up, Nureyev took a drink from the cup, before making a choking noise and snapping his head up to give Juno an affronted look.

“What was that?!”

“...Coffee?”

“Isn’t coffee supposed to be sweet or something? This is disgusting.”

“It’s literally just coffee.”

“No, I’ve  _ had _ coffee from Rita. This is nothing like that.” Nureyev’s cheek was smushed against one of his fists and propped up on the table. Juno furrowed his brow at him in confusion, making the executive decision to drop the subject.

“Would I be right if I guessed you never left last night?”

“More libraries should be open as long as this one.”

“Okay, I’ll take that as a yes.” Juno reached into his bag and pulled out a nutrient bar that he’d brought for lunch. He slid that across to Nureyev as well. The man in question immediately unwrapped it and took a bite. There was a bright red mark on his cheek where his face had been resting on his fist, and Juno could now tell he was wearing makeup. It had smudged under his eyes and on his jaw. The notes in front of him looked like they had at some point devolved into drawings instead of words.

“Are you going to be okay to stay here?” Juno asked, not trying to make Nureyev feel like he was forcing him into anything.

“Of course. I’m not even tired.” Nureyev gestured at him, apparently forgetting his hand was holding his stylus. His eyes followed the stylus as it rolled over the tabletop, stopping as it hit the edge of Juno’s book.

Juno hummed, trying not to show his concern, and flicked the stylus back toward Nureyev who watched it once again with rapt attention. Slowly he reached out and picked it up once again.

“How’s your end of the research?”

“Fine.”

“Learn anything interesting last night?” Juno prompted.

“Couldn’t really focus last night. The lights kept moving.” Nureyev said, annoyed. He tilted back his head to glare at the outline on top of the walls where the lights were at night. Juno’s eyebrows raised. As far as he was aware, the library’s lights weren’t in the habit of moving around. 

“And you’re sure you’re okay?”

“Obviously.”

Juno sighed again and rubbed his palms over his temples. He didn’t see how he could win this argument. Instead, he opened the book in front of him to a random page and pretended to read while he subtly watched Nureyev. 

Nureyev had gone back to resting his head on his fist, and was glaring at the book in front of him. Every once in a while his head would wobble forward a bit before shooting up. For a master of pretend, Nureyev certainly couldn’t seem to pretend any longer that he wasn’t tired. After watching the thief’s head fall forward sleepily for the fifth time in the past hour, Juno decided he might as well try to at least accomplish something while waiting. Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest way to go about things, waiting to see how long it would take Nureyev to give in, but it wasn’t like he could just pick him up and carry him back to the ship against his will. 

Two pages into his reading, Juno was startled to his feet by a thud from across the table. Nureyev’s arm was still bent up as though his head were still resting on it, but his face was buried in his open book. Assuming the worst, Juno rushed to check that Nureyev was still breathing and that his heart was beating, before coming to the conclusion that he had fallen asleep. The worry that had been coursing through him for the past few days didn’t subside at that knowledge but only made him quicker in packing up both of their bags. He thanked the stars that the ship was hidden so close to the library as he crossed their bags over his shoulders and bent down to pick Nureyev up. 

He was sweating and out of breath by the time he reached the hatch. Nureyev was thin and lanky but his weight thrown over Juno’s shoulder in combination with the heavy book bags had Juno grinding his teeth. He wasn’t as gentle as he would have hoped to be as he placed Nureyev in his bed. Somehow he had stayed unconscious the whole walk back to the ship, but he was awoken as his body bounced slightly on his mattress. There was a vice-like grip on his wrist and a knife pointed at him before he could even move to take the bags off his shoulders.

“Where did you take me?”

“We’re on the ship, Nureyev. You passed out while we were researching so I carried you back. You’re welcome”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“Oh come on-- Listen. I’m not--I’m not out to get you, Nureyev. I’m  _ worried _ . You were so tired you just passed out in a  _ library _ .” Nureyev scoffed, but his grip on the knife relaxed a bit.

“Of course you’re worried about me. Why would I ever doubt you on that?”

“You're tired. You’re almost half asleep right now. I don’t want to have this conversation when you aren’t here enough to understand what I’m trying to say. Get some sleep and we can talk later.” Juno tried to gently pry Nureyev’s fingers from his wrist.

“What conversation?” Nureyev said, the same challenging note in his voice from a few days ago.

“Oh for the love of-- Listen. I’ll say this now, you’ll go to sleep, and then I’ll repeat it after when you wake up. I’m sorry, Nureyev. I’m sorry for leaving you and making it seem like your sacrifices to me in that tomb were worthless-- that you meant nothing to me. I didn’t think I deserved you. I didn’t think I deserved to be  _ happy _ with you. Now I know that that was selfish. It wasn’t my choice to make. I understand if you don’t forgive me, but I’ll give you time and space to decide. For now, though, you  _ need _ to  _ sleep _ .” 

His face felt hot, and his hand was clammy where it was still resting on top of Nureyev’s. He was pretty sure if Nureyev didn’t stop staring at him like that and respond or do  _ something _ he was going to have a heart attack with how his heart was pounding. Eventually, after what felt like forever for Juno standing there sweating in his trench coat and book bags, Nureyev’s grip loosened around his wrist.

“Ah.” Juno watched Nureyev sluggishly slide his hand away from Juno’s to pinch the skin on his forearm. Juno made a sharp, alarmed noise and yanked his hand back into his own.

“What are you  _ doing _ ?”

“Thought I was maybe sleeping still. You’re real?”

“As far as I’m aware, yeah.”

“And you’ll still be real when I wake up? You’ll stay?”

“Of course, Nu--Peter.” 

When Peter woke up the first thing he saw was Juno, sitting on the floor beside his bed, asleep with an open book in his lap. The hand that wasn’t resting on the book was bent upwards and clasped around Peter’s. Peter let him rest. He figured they could both use the sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> im on twitter @cryke_art


End file.
